Bentkowska-Kafel, A.,  Hoyo Melendez, J.,  Macdonald, L.,  Mathys, A. & Moitinho, V. 2016. ‘Colour and Space in Cultural Heritage in 6Ds: the Interdisciplinary Connections’. In: Stefano Campana, Roberto Scopigno, Gabriella Carpent ero and Marianna Cirillo (ed), Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference on Computer Applicat ons and Quant tat ve Methods In Archaeology. Oxford : Archaeopress, pp. 953-962. ISBN:  978 1 78491 337 3.

Chapitre dans un livre / Article dans un ouvrage collectif

Documentation of material cultural heritage is a core common interest to the participants of the network ‘Colour and Space in Cultural Heritage’ (www.COSCH.info), supported by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) between 2012 and 2016. Although COSCH is a trans-domain Action in Materials, Physics and Nanosciences (TD1201) many of the over 200 participants are not scientists. Perspectives on the material cultural object are many within this diverse, interdisciplinary group. Despite this kind of collaborative research being well established, defining research questions of common interest and basic terms of communication is far from easy. This paper shares some observations drawn upon the COSCH experience and looks at the issues of colour and space in cultural heritage in six dimensions: disciplines and digital technology involved, data, documentation, development, and diffusion. To highlight the danger of assumed understanding, the term ‘dimensions’ is used here both as a mathematical term, indicating results of measurement, as well as figuratively, as a multitude of perspectives or views. The paper introduces a case study of ancient Roman coins, being undertaken by a group of ten researchers from different academic institutions, museums, and scientific laboratories in eight countries. The novelty of this exploratory study lies in the breadth of approaches and examination methods, applied to the same objects for effective comparison and evaluation. The paper does not present the results of the study, still in progress at the time of writing. The authors aim instead to highlight the challenge of articulating and understanding the multiplicity of interdisciplinary questions involved.